#TSAS

Why don’t we misunderstand the number 3? Do you have a private photograph? Is most of perception ineffable? Do propositions capture reality? What cannot be shown? Or, said? How does one describe touch? Or disgust? What/how do you understand if you watch a foreign language film without subtitles? How is it even possible for our thought to be about the world? Does the logical form of a fact and its (corresponding) sentence match each other? Does language ‘depict’ the world? How does this picturing take place? Is saying helpless without showing? Is seeing believing? Are films merely audiovisual? Is there a limit to what can be said in filmic narration? Can tautologies or contradictions only be shown? How do you show? Can a shot of an ocean have a narrative arc? Are films more compatible with the way we form memories? Which shots stay in your mind? Is cinema closer to immediate perception? Are propositions always abstract? Can we speak about just about anything? When do descriptions fail? What would a world of only blind people be like? What might be the future of saying and showing? Should one be silent when the situation is of great importance? What else can one say…? SynTalk thinks about these & more questions using concepts from philosophy (Dr. Nilanjan Bhowmick, University of Delhi, New Delhi), & documentary film making & film theory (Dr. Aparna Sharma, UCLA, Los Angeles).

Listen in…

SynTalk is pleased and privileged to have hosted the following SynTalkrs (in alphabetical order) on its #TSAS show.

Dr. Nilanjan Bhowmick (philosophy) is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Arts, University of Delhi (DU), New Delhi. Prior to his current role, he has also taught at St. Stephen’s College, DU. His areas of research interests are analytic philosophy, history of western philosophy & logic. Dr. Bhowmick did his B.A. (Journalism), M.A. (Philosophy) & M.Phil. (Philosophy) from University of Delhi. He then obtained his Ph.D. (Philosophy) from the University of Connecticut, USA, specializing in philosophy of language (2012). Prior to taking up teaching and research in philosophy he worked in the civil services. Dr. Bhowmick has given invited talks in IIT Bombay, IIT Delhi, North Bengal University, Ashoka University, & JNU amongst other places. He teaches a wide variety of subjects, including virtue epistemology, conditionals, philosophy of literature, and has given M.Phil. courses on Modality and Semantics. He likes reading widely, and takes an active interest in fiction, poetry, history, linguistics, sociology, and economics. He also writes short stories, whenever he gets time from his other pursuits. His research, & writing is influenced by people such as Bertrand Russell, Noam Chomsky, Murakami, and J M Coetzee. Dr. Bhowmick was awarded the Gold Medal in M.A. (Philosophy), University of Delhi, & the Aetna First Prize, in Graduate Writing in Creative Non-Fiction, University of Connecticut, USA. He has published a book titled, ‘Demonstration and Quantification: The Logical Form of That F is G’ (Lambert Academic Publishing, 2012). He also published a short story, titled, ‘Berth 31’ in The Bitter Oleander (Layfette, New York, 2012). His academic publications have featured in Journal of Indian Council of Philosophical Research (JICPR).

Dr. Aparna Sharma (documentary film making, film theory) is a documentary filmmaker and theorist. She is currently Associate Professor at Department of World Arts and Cultures/ Dance, University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), Los Angeles, USA. She also serves as the Vice-Chair of Undergraduate Studies at her department. Dr. Sharma’s research interest is focused on study of the unique formations and aesthetics of India’s documentary cinema. She is motivated by a vision of cinema that is appreciative of everyday life, and experiences of work and labor. She is committed to low-budget and collaborative documentary-making as a way to facilitate aesthetic and formal experimentation in filmmaking. Dr. Sharma completed her B.A. (Journalism) & M.A. (Political Science) from University of Delhi. She also did her M.A. in Film from International Film School, University of Wales. She obtained her Ph.D. in Film by Practice, from University of Glamorgan, UK. Dr. Sharma now works primarily in India’s northeastern region, where she documents the rich cultural life and practices of this region’s numerous communities. Her earlier films have focused on the visual cultures and practices surrounding the fertility worship site, Kamakhya Temple, and the indigenous forest-based theater in Assam. She is completing a feature-length documentary on indigenous Assamese weaving, scheduled to be released in 2018 & is also researching a project titled, ‘Welsh-Khasi Intercultural Dialogues’. She travels extensively in the region and is presently studying the history of photography in the northeast. As with much of her work, this research will shape into scholarly/written outcomes and a documentary film. In her scholarly writing, she has published a book-length study on Indian documentary aesthetics titled, ‘Documentary films in India: Critical Aesthetics at Work’ (2015).